Our 10 year birthday party on Saturday December 2nd was truly a treat. We were joined by Rebus family old and new for an afternoon of reflections on our decade of theatre (and other arts) for social change. The heartwarming proceedings began with a beautiful welcome To Country by Ngunnawal elder Aunty Violet followed by speeches from:
– Craig Wallace who applied for the very first grant for the project that kickstarted Rebus while working at disability information and referral service NICAN in 2013, and went on to become our Vice President from 2017-2019
– Cara Matthews who was an original cast member of the 2013 project and went onto become co-CEO alongside Robin Davidson and Ben Drysdale before moving to Melbourne in late 2019
– Simone Penkethman who has just taken up the role of President of the Board again having previously served in that role from 2017-2019
– Artistic Director Robin Davidson and Creative Producer Ben Drysdale who have been there from the start
– Minister for Health Rachel Stephen-Smith MLA
It was a treat to be joined by some other Rebus stalwarts who have since moved on like original Rebus cast John Rogers and Meredyth Pettit, former Creative Programs Director/Co-CEO Ali Clinch, and so many of our amazing past and present participants and actors across our extensive range of programs who all shared stories about their experiences in Rebus for a Playback Theatre performance. There’ll be a separate post with pics of that!
We would like to thank everyone who has been on the journey with us, been to our shows, joined our programs, performed in our shows and changed the world with us! Big thanks to the ACT and Federal Governments for their funding support, Ainslie and Gorman Arts Centres for their ongoing support and Tuggeranong and Belco Arts Centre for all their partnership over the years.
We’ll leave you with a list of notable achievements from our decade long history that surprised even us!
• Performed in Sydney, Melbourne, Eurobodalla Shire, Bega Valley Shire, Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council, East Gippsland and the ACT.
• Received six awards we’ve received 4 awards for inclusion (and we’re shortlisted for two more this Wednesday) We have also received one for allyship and one for theatre.
• Developed seven theatre-based workplace training programs (six using Forum Theatre) with over 50 performances;
• Run over 45 individual programs with marginalised communities engaging over 600 participants;
• Developed 16 original works with inclusive casts addressing a range of social issues with over 50 performances. One of these works was a variety night which consisted of 12 acts and 60 performers of whom 60% identified has having a disability.
Here’s to another 10 years!
